Wednesday, April 19, 2006

Silk Market Appeal Case: Decision Upheld, Compensation Peanuts

In the Silk Market Appeal Case the fundamental question to be ruled upon was:
Is the landlord liable in case he is warned that his tenants infringe trademarks, or is the state responsible for preventing further trademark infringement? Read more about it here.

Beijing High People's Court upheld the ruling by Beijing No 2 Intermediate People's Court. However, the ruling requires Silk Street Market to compensate only 20,000 yuan (US$2,500) to each Prada, Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Gucci and Burberry. Peanuts of course compared to the 500,000 yuan (US$62,000) claimed by of each of the companies.

But the ruling can still be seen as a great victory in the education of landlords, and possibly an indication that the Chinese authorities will prosecute in-active landlords who are informed about trademark infringing tenants. Read Liu Mo's article for the China Daily here and Chris Noon's article for Forbes more focused on Louis Vuitton here.

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